The Curse of Oak Island: CRITICAL Evidence Found in Wooden Structure (Season 11)

Rick and Alex Lagina,
along with metal detection expert, Gary Drayton,
join Billy Gerhardt at the south shore of the swamp.
We’re gonna do a dig,
past the stone road to see the extent of it,
something you’ve always wanted to do.
-Yep.
[narrator] Now that some three million gallons
of brackish water have been pumped out of the bog,
they’re eager to once again investigate the stone road.
[Billy] I’m hopeful we’ll… be finding all kinds of good stuff.
And where are you gonna put all the artifacts?
In the back of my car.
[all laughing]
[Billy] I’ll start scraping some gravel off.
[narrator] As Billy carefully digs, Gary Drayton…
-You want this one?
-Yep.
[narrator] …will scan the spoils
for any important clues for evidence of valuables.
[Rick] We may find a feature or features
under the swamp road that may indicate why
the stone road was constructed,
I’d like to know every last bit of information
that the swamp can give us,
and hopefully, that information goes towards
the greater goal of solving the mystery.
-[Rick] Wait a minute.
-Oh.
[Rick] What is that?
See it?
Right there.
There it is.
-I see it, Billy!
-[Billy] Yep.
Yeah. That’s it.
[narrator] Rick Lagina and members of the team
have just made a curious discovery.
-It looks like a dowel.
-[Rick] Yep.
When I saw it, you know what it reminded me of?
The dowels in the U-shaped structure.
-[Alex] Yeah.
-Just about how big they were.
Yeah, they were huge.
[Rick] There’s a log right there.
There’s a peg right here.
-Is it?
-[Rick] I think.
[narrator] In 2018, Rick, Marty, and the team,
unearthed a mysterious feature at Smith’s Cove,
that was originally discovered by Dan Blankenship in 1971.
Yeah, Roman numeral?
-Yeah.
-If it is, it’s a seven. V-1-1.
[narrator] A nearly 65-foot-long,
U-shaped wooden structure,
that was believed to be associated
with the flood tunnels connected to the money pit.
It not only featured large wooden dowels,
but was also engraved with the unique style
of Roman numerals.
[Laird] It looks like V-I-I-I.
[narrator] Roman numerals that also matched
those found on an ancient musket artifact
that was discovered six weeks ago
in a circular depression on Lot 5.
[Rick] Here, there’s some…
-Like it was cut.
-Yeah.
Let’s put it aside, we’ll wash it.
[narrator] Is it possible the Oak Island team
has found evidence of a related wooden structure
near the stone road in the swamp?
If so, could it be a critical piece of evidence
that might help complete the Oak Island puzzle?
Hopefully, there’s more.
-[Alex] We’ll bag this up.
-[Rick] Yeah.
The U-shaped structure’s one of the most
mysterious things we found on the island.
Finding another wooden construction
using the same technique here in the swamp,
speaks to the extent of the works on Oak Island.
Nope, not getting any hits.
How much deeper before we get
to the level of the stone road?
-I’d say it’s another foot.
-Yep.
Well, we’re certainly coming to the zone
that we start to look for it more and more, yeah.
-Okay. Let’s keep digging.
-[Billy] All right.
Okay, I’ll get out of the way.
[machinery whirring]
[clanking]
[Gary] Right, let’s get stoking.
[device beeping]
Got a signal.
Got a signal, Billy.
Let me see if I can pinpoint it.
-That was pretty close.
-Yeah.
-[device beeping]
-Here we go.
[device beeping rapidly]
Yep.
What do we got here?
-[Rick] What is that?
-[Gary] Ah.
-It’s some kind of chain.
-[Alex] Yeah.
[narrator] Rick Lagina and members of the Oak Island team
have just made a potentially important discovery.
That has potential to be old, I think.
-Yeah.
-Yep.
[Gary] It looks old.
You can see it’s…
It looks like it’s hand-forged.
[Alex] Yeah.
My guess is it’s predating forges.
Oh, wow.
What’s the big piece on the end?
-[Rick] Could be a hook.
-[Gary] Yeah.
Either a hook, or just a big link.
-[Rick] Yeah.
And you’d need a chain like this
for hopefully, unloading.
-[Alex] Right.
-I’m not gonna say loading.
Unloading.
[Gary] Yeah, look at the treasure.
[Alex] I like it.
[narrator] A hand-forged iron chain
found near the potentially 500-year-old stone road?
Could Gary be correct
that it may have been used to unload valuable cargo
from a ship and onto Oak Island long ago?
Okay, mate, I’ll re-check the pile,
see if we get any more finds.
Okay.
[device beeping]
[Gary] We have got something else in here.
[device beeping]
[Gary] Ooh!
Look at that hook!
We got a hook!
[laughing]
[Gary] That looks like an oldie.
That’s like a crude hook.
When you hold that…
and say how old that is.
Yeah, and so this might be
a sign of great things to come,
because whatever they was hauling,
this chain broke,
and it might still be in the dig.
Fingers crossed and keep looking.
[Gary] Okay, mate.
[Alex] We found some really good artifacts
that speaks to… moving some very heavy things
in this area.
And it also speaks to the amount of work
that was being done on the island.